(_a_) “Though I be so unhappy that I can present no novelty to T. H. yet
I have this comfort, that if he be not surprised, then in reason I may
expect a more mature answer from him,” &c.
Though I were not surprised, yet I do not see the reason for which he
saith he may expect a more mature answer from me; or any further answer
at all. For seeing I wrote this at his modest request, it is no modest
expectation to look for as many answers as he shall be pleased to exact.
(_b_) “The sheep should not brag how much they have eaten, but shew it
in their lamb and wool.”
It is no great bragging, to say I was not surprised; for whosoever
chanceth to read Suarez’s _Opuscula_, where he writeth of free-will and
of the concourse of God with man’s will, shall find the greatest part,
if not all, that the Bishop hath urged in this question. But that which
the Bishop hath said of the reasons and authorities which he saith in
his epistle do offer themselves to serve in this cause, and many other
passages of his book, I shall, I think, before I have done with him,
make appear to be very bragging, and nothing else. And though he say it
be Epictetus’s counsel, that sheep should shew what they eat in their
lamb and wool, it is not likely that Epictetus should take a metaphor
from lamb and wool; for it could not easily come into the mind of men
that were not acquainted with the paying of tithes. Or if it had, he
would have said lambs in the plural, as laymen use to speak. That which
follows of my leaving things untouched, and altering the state of the
question; I remember no such thing, unless he require that I should
answer, not to his arguments only, but also to his syllables.